Women's Premier Division 2025

[cláirseach]

Welcome to the second annual WPD thread!

Ken Kiernan left Bohemians last nigt, which was unexpected, to say the least. They had a very young team last year, were a little inconsistent, but looked like they were on the right path.

I wonder if his resignation has anything to do with the vacancy left by new Dundalk men's manager Ciaran Kilduff in Athlone? Ken was Ciarán's assistant there before taking the Bohs job.

Elsewhere there are vacancies in Wexford, Peamount and Sligo, as well as at new arrivals Waterford. Treaty have also swapped bosses, so more clubs (7) will have a new face in the dugout than a returning one (5), though we might see some familiar faces like Gary Hunt or Alban Hysa returning.

[cláirseach]

Steve Feeney now announced for a return to Sligo Rovers.

[cláirseach]

Chaos i gCorcaight as Danny Murphy is no longer manager. Seems previously to be some unhappiness about the preparations for the season, rumours of the club not backing the women's team have been circulating for a while now. Is that something to do with it?

Perhaps it could benefit newcomers Waterford, however they appear to be at-least partially outsourcing their new side to an external consortium and giving it a separate name, crest etc.

[ForzaForth]

With the President’s Cup this weekend, just putting up my 2025 predictions. Was pleased with my call of Athlone for league winners last season, but this time I’ve gone for Shelbourne as the safe bet. Overall, I see a top six and a bottom six. In order as follows:-

Shelbourne: Couple of key departures but still look very strong. If their two new North American signings (Anthony and Del Pico) can have the same influence as the two that have left – Pierce and Gray – they should go very close. A midfield of close to international quality with Kavanagh, McLaughlin and Clancy. A possible weakness down their left side with an apparent absence of left-sided players.
Athlone: Second place may depend on the effect of their two big new signings – Izzy Groves from Lionesses and Kelly Brady. Any team with the exceptional Madie Gibson must be respected. Departure of excellent netminder, Katie Keane, may cost them points.
Wexford: Don’t expect too much of a gap between the next three. Return of Ellen Molloy and new arrival of the excellent Aoife Kelly should add a lot of ability to the team. The returning Lauren Dwyer is a big addition to the defence. Key position is that of striker where Rianna Jarrett and the very young Leah McGrath have to convert the chances.
Peamount: With the arrival of Amanda Budden and Abby Tuthill, Peamount look more than solid at the back. Problems may arise further up the pitch. Won’t concede too much. Have them as fourth.
Galway: Departure of Julie Ann Russell and Jenna Slattery removes a lot of firepower from last season’s team. Jamie Erickson also a loss from their defence. Good keepers with Jayne Merren and Nicole Nix covering that position. Phil Trill an asset as manager but see them as fifth.
Shamrock Rovers: Other than the ageless Aine O’Gorman, this looks a young squad. Have lost a number of key players from last season. Can’t win anything with kids. I’ve placed them sixth.
DLR: Have kept much of last season’s team and should be very solid. See them as seventh with a possibility of higher.
Bohemians: Solid team also but don’t see them in contention. Possibly eighth.
Sligo: Have kept much of last year’s team. See them as ninth.
Treaty: Many of their imports appear to have left. Tenth.
Waterford: New team. Some good experience signed from Wexford including Maeve Williams, Jess Lawlor and Mia Lenihan. May need at least a season to get up to speed. Eleventh.
Cork: Have lost some useful players but their stand-out player, Colleen Kennedy O’Connell, is stated on the CCFC Forum not to be available until the mid-season break. If that’s the case, could finish bottom of the pile.

[Kiki Balboa]

Has there been any movement on a 1st Division?

[ForzaForth]

Kiki, Haven't heard a thing personally. But you'd imagine it wouldn't be too difficult as a good number of LOI clubs have underage women set-ups.

[DonegalHoop]

Great to see 12 teams in the division now. Has Julie Ann Russell retired from all football? I thought she had just stepped away from the international side.

[ForzaForth]

Donegal, My understanding is that's she's given up completely.

[Shearer]

Athlone wearing last year's jersey in a competitive game is very Athlone.

[cláirseach]

Fair play Forza, there has been so much change that I'm finding it very hard to predict much of the season ahead. In place of some rankings I will try and do a quick sentence or two about each side.

Shelbourne - They finished last year in flying form, have kept their manager, and the majority of their key players. Maggie Pierce was a fantastic player and will be missed, while Gray & Healy contributed too. I know very little about the players they have added from the States, but they're probably favourites regardless.

Athlone - The reigning champs have had a turbulent offseason. Manager Ciarán Kilduff has gone to Dundalk, with Colin Fortune stepping into the role. Lots of change on the playing front too, they will really miss Brenda Taby, who felt like a cert to score every week, and goalkeeper Katie Keane. They'll be expecting Kayla Brady and Izzy Groves to have a big impact, the latter a Jamaican international signing from the London City Lionesses. If you think the men's setup is odd at times the women's side pull of some bizarre but brilliant recruitment. Have a lot of attacking talent in Singleton, Molly, Gibson etc.

Wexford - Particularly difficult to predict, although Aoife Kelly has joined from Shamrock Rovers and will add a lot to their midfield, and Ellen Molloy returns from a brief spell at Sheffield United and the whole league knows what she is capable of. It is a good, talented squad, but they will need to get off to a much faster start than they have in recent years if they want to compete.

Galway - Generally I'd be reluctant to describe a team that lost their keeper, their centre half and two of the best players in the league in Julie-Ann Russell and the wonderfully skilled Jenna Slattery as contenders, but they have recruited well to fill at least three of those gaps. Trill has done a good job in Terryland and they stayed in the mix for two thirds of the previous season. Do they have the goals in them to challenge Shels? If Emma Doherty kicks on this year, or even if the points per game acquired by the top teams drops a little then they'd fancy their chances to put a run together.

[cláirseach]

Shamrock Rovers - The director of football has left, and the playing departures hit double figures. On the other hand manager Collie O'Neill remains in place and Rovers will hope that their talented group of youngsters continue their development and are a little more consistent this year. Can you lose players like Shauna Fox, Amanda Budden, Aoife Kelly, Stephanie Zambra etc. and improve? On paper it looks like a year of transition, but then again, for all the talent that they have had in the recent past it hadn't really clicked.

Peamount - James O'Callaghan was at the helm for a long time and will be difficult to replace. They still have some brilliant players, young and less-young, and if they get a luckier run with injuries than last year they should be able to bounce back. I'm really looking forward to seeing Sadhbh Doyle back in action, just a wonderful player and a joy to watch. You can insert your 'like a new signing' cliche here.

[cláirseach]

DLR - a bit of stability can go a long way when the world around you is changing. They bottomed out a couple of years ago and have been on a slow rise since. Michelle Doonan's return up front gives them a chance of pulling off a couple of shocks this season, as they have shown that they can stay in games.

Bohs - Alban Hysa replaces Ken Kiernan, who joined Ciarán Kilduff at Dundalk. Róisín McGovern should fill the gap left by Tiegan Ruddy, while elsewhere they have benefited from bringing in players from Shelbourne who are looking for more gametime or a different environment. There are a whole host of young players at Bohs with bright futures. It'll be interesting to see how Hannah Healy will get on this year, I think a bit more responsibility will suit her.

Treaty - Just like last year I hate writing this one as I have no idea really. Martin Russell's son Seán steps in as manager. There can be a lot of turnover at Treaty, and a lot of players coming in from outside the league. Perhaps someone closer to the club would like to give us a lowdown on how they are shaping up?

Cork - After some promising performances last year it all fell apart somewhat at the end. Danny Murphy is out, in bizarre circumstances, and Frank Kelliher returns as boss. They've lost a couple of players, Orlaith O'Mahony to Flyde, Alex Mendes to Aberdeen, Erin O'Brien and others to Waterford, but have been able to hang out to most of their squad. However if the rumours of Coleen Kennedy having a long-term injury are true than that is a huge blow.

Sligo - Last year was a hard slog. Tommy Hewitt is out and has been replaced by the returning Steve Feeney, who managed the club through their first two campaigns. He has something of a rebuilding job on his hands, I know that Keri Loughrey has moved to Linfield but I'm unsure about Jodie. Keeping pace with some of Cork, Treaty or perhaps DLR, while holding off Waterford will be the aim.

Waterford - the new girls. Gary Hunt is an experienced manager but there isn't a huge amount of senior experience in the squad. The players that I recognise all have decent potential but it could be a slow build. Interestingly the ownership is different or somewhat detached from the men's side so I'm a little unclear on what the future plans are there.

[outspoken]

Athlone wearing last year's jersey in a competitive game is very Athlone.

Noticed the men's team last night all their warm up gear still had Valeo on it, must be last year's stuff too

[JC_GUFC]

Has there been any movement on a 1st Division?

I came on here to ask the same question.

There are 8 clubs now competing in the Women’s U19 League who aren’t yet in the Senior League.

Given the age profile of the senior league it seems the logical step would be to create a Division 1 next season and possibly two Divisions of 10 teams. Though maybe if clubs at the bottom of the existing League haven’t been told of potential relegation they’ll run with 12-8 for the first year of it.

[cláirseach]

Unfortunately very few of those eight clubs are competitive at that u19 level yet, and a handful of them are way, way off it. One had ten put past them yesterday. They might need just a little bit more time or a couple more player cycles first. A clearer timeline might be good though.

[JC_GUFC]

Unfortunately very few of those eight clubs are competitive at that u19 level yet, and a handful of them are way, way off it. One had ten put past them yesterday. They might need just a little bit more time or a couple more player cycles first. A clearer timeline might be good though.

To be fair, based on very early season results, there are only two of those sides who are uncompetitive. If they’re all playing each other in Division 1 in a couple of seasons they shouldn’t be exposed to the very top teams.

[cláirseach]

I'll come back to that in a few weeks if you like JC, as I don't want to get too specific about underage teams, but I will say now that I have not seen or heard much to suggest that, with the definite exception of Dundalk (and possible exception of Harps or CK) that the clubs without a senior team will be able to compete seriously with the clubs who have a senior team (bar Waterford). Perhaps and hopefully I will be wrong. I think there have been decent 'entry' points available for Dundalk and Harps (or certainly the Donegal League team that preceded them) and, had things been run or operating better on the men's side we could well have seen both competing by now.

[cláirseach]

As for the Women's Premier Division itself, that midfield three for Bohemians are a joy to watch. Three teenagers - Gaughran, Brennan and Healy - who are all wonderful competitors and technically gifted players. They will get overrun at times but they're already the side's three stars. Another youngester, Katie McCarn, came out with two screaming finishes yesterday. Still, overall, you'd expect and up-and-down season.

One Rovers are off to a flyer - the young players in Tallaght (Kelly, O'Reilly etc.) are kicking up a gear and despite losing so many in the summer they might be more balanced for it. The other Rovers have had a poor start, as have DLR. All early days yet. I was also very impressed with Galway when I saw them last week. All early days yet of course. Whether or not you have a top level #9 seems as big a deal at the moment as having a good #1 was a few years back.

[JC_GUFC]

I see Cobh have announced their intentions to enter a Senior Team next year so a Division 1 could be closer if the likes of Dundalk and Harps enter teams.

A couple of the teams look to be miles off it but you’d imagine if entering a senior team they’d attract better players from further afield. They could also be quite young sides for u19 level, I’ve no idea.

Also my point is if they’re playing in Division 1 they don’t need to be competing with the likes of Shels and Rovers.

I guess the counter argument is that the strength-in-depth in the League isn’t really there yet. Does adding more teams dilute things even further?

I don’t think it would add anything to the league having one 16-team Division as there’d likely be a couple of hammerings each week.

As for this season it looks wide open again. Rovers have started impressively for sure and possibly are favourites ahead of Shels. I wasn’t sure Galway United would be in the shake up again this season, especially with the loss of the spine of the team, Berlin in goal, Erickson who played nearly every match over 2 years at CB, Jenna Slattery and Julie-Ann Russell. The first two results have been good but Saturday will be a real test against Rovers to see if we are contenders. Emma Doherty and Ceola Bergin probably offer more of a goal threat than we’ve ever had before.

[Ancient Rush]

Crowd of 726 there for Treaty today. Very decent numbers to see them win late and momentarily go top of the division

[wonder88]

Important win for Galway at home v Shamrock R. Athlone (the campions we shouldn't forget) are off to a good start as well. That is a good crowd in Limerick as it is really difficult to build a fan base for women's sports, camogie and LGA the same.

[Ontheball92]

City close to it again definitely think if they made a few changes that they could be a top 4 team 1 or 2 players costing them